AMD officially rolls out Turks and Caicos

As expected and confirmed eariler, this morning AMD introduced a full range of its entry-level Radeon cards starting with the previously previewed Caiocs based HD 6450 and two new Turks based HD 6570 and the HD 6670 card. All cards are based on the 40nm technology and feature support for DirectX 11.

The AMD Caicos-based HD 6450 has been previewed earlier and packs 160 Stream Processors and either DDR3 or GDDR5 memory paired up with a 64-bit memory interface. The card has different clocks depending on the version and there could be a wide variety of SKUs to choose from once it finally appears in retail/e-tail. Of course, most of the HD 6450 cards will be based on a low-profile PCB with a passive cooling solution.

The launched AMD Turks GPU will be available in two versions, the Turks Pro and the Turks XT. Both versions will feature the same 480 Stream Processors paired up with a 128-bit memory interface and the only difference is in the choice of memory and the actual clocks of both cards. The reference HD 6570 ends up with a GDDR3 memory while the HD 6670 should end up with a GDDR5 memory, although some partners have already opted for the GDDR5 memory on the HD 6570 as well. The HD 6570 ends up with a lower 650MHz GPU clock while most HD 6670 cards should work at 800MHz, although you can expect some variations in these two as well as partners roll out their SKUs.

The prices for the Turks based HD 6570 and the HD 6670 are set at US $79 and US $99. Most reviewers agree on the same thing, the Turks based cards are a nice update to the sub-$100 market but then again the price might be a bit steep considering what you actually get and what you could get for the same amount of money. The good side is that HD 6570 should end up with a low profile PCB as well and considering these don't need an additional external power, might be a good choice for a HTPC system.